ESXi & Vcenter licensing question

[kpc]

Hi

I purchased vcenter a while back along with some vsphere licenses, however still have around 15 older ESXi servers that I'd like to upgrade and manage from vcenter.

However I'm a little confused regarding the cost of purchasing upgrades to my free ESXi installs to allow connection to vcenter.  I looked at the Essentials Kit in which you can purchase 3 licenses but that's to connect to vCenter Essentials.

What exactly is the difference?  I'm guessing you can't attached essential ESXi licenses to standard vCenter...

I'm not that interested in HA or vmotion, I just need a way to connect ESXi to my vCenter.

Thanks

[idle-jam · Accepted solution]

esxi essential connects to vcenter essential. for your case you will need to upgrade to vsphere Standard in order to be managed by the vCenter.

[kpc]

Thanks Idle, had guessed this would be the case...

[idle-jam]

but then the good news is that HA and vMotion comes with standard edition now.